The marshmallow challenge is a great activity that asks groups to build the tallest tower that will support a marshmallow at the top in just 18 minutes. The catch is that you can only use 20 pieces of spaghetti, a yard of tape and a yard of string.
The limited time pushes groups to make fast decisions about what they will build. This brings out the true colors of the team members. It’s a great way to get people working together and doing something with their hands.
Besides the team-building, there is another lesson in this fun competition: Most teams underestimate how heavy the marshmallow is compared to the pasta.
What ends up happening is that after 17 minutes, it’s time to put on the marshmallow and the whole tower collapses. There are a couple reasons why this matters:
The marshmallow is a symbol for the assumptions that we carry in any project. In many projects and ventures, we assume that if we build x, people will want it, but we leave this assumption untested.
Second, the teams that perform best on this task (besides engineers) are teams that try many different strategies early on. They go through a rapid iteration phases where they try out different structures.
This is a great activity to do with aspiring entrepreneurs because these two lessons are crucial in creating a successful company. The supplies are cheap, the activity is fun and there’s a great message.
Note: I was originally inspired by this Ted Talk about the marshmallow challenge. I’ve since facilitated this activity numerous times with hundreds of university students.
Leave a Reply